Blackout
by Nagiana
Summary: Claudia is the daughter of Elsa and Ralf. What happens when her and Gretel both vie for the same guy's affections? What happens when that guy is Lieutenant Kurt Kotler?
1. Chapter 1

_Oswiecim, Poland, 1942_

"Gretel get back here!"

Claudia's angry voice wafted through the manor as she appeared on the top of the stairs. She saw the tail ends of her younger sister's dress as she ran into the kitchen to no doubt go hide behind their mother's skirts, safely protected from her older sister's volcanic rage.

Angrily, Claudia descended the stairs and marched into the kitchen, her scarlet red pumps clacking on the tiled floor, her long, dark chocolate brown hair flowing behind her like a dark storm cloud.

Her mother's back was to her oldest daughter when she entered the kitchen, and Gretel squeaked in fright when she saw her older sister standing in the doorway shooting her looks of daggers from the threshold. Elsa had a look of alarm on her pretty face as she regarded her oldest daughter. "Claudia? What is this about?"

Claudia pointed threateningly at Gretel and opened her mouth to say something but soon closed it at a temporary loss for words. Finally, she found her voice. "That little . . . _brat_ overheard my conversation with Nicholaus before he left!" Their mother turned around and glanced at Gretel before she turned back around to gaze at her oldest daughter.

"What is so wrong about Gretel overhearing a conversation between you and Nicholaus, Claudia?" She asked her daughter and Claudia's head rose pridefully as she crossed her arms in front of her breasts. While Gretel and Bruno took after their meek mother, Claudia was well known for taking a lot of her father's strong, dominate traits. She was cold and indifferent most of the time, had the temper of a raging bull and could be as stubborn as an ass, the atypical German. The only thing she didn't agree with her father on was her father's views on the Jews.

Blush tinged Claudia's cheeks lightly as she prepared to answer her mother's question. Her current boyfriend was Nicholaus Reinhardt, the _Korvettenoberstleutnant_ of the Nazi army. In English, he was the Lieutenant Colonel of the German Naval Forces, a prestigious title and career.

Claudia had met the young man at the University of Berlin, where she was studying to be a psychiatrist. She brought him home for the Fall holidays one week, which proved to be one of the worst mistakes Claudia had ever made. She never intended for her relationship with Nicholaus to go anywhere other than a one-time fling with the occasional bout of sex thrown in there for good measure, but once they returned to the University, she was almost immediately bombarded with letters from her father telling her how much the family loved Nicholaus and how she should bring him home for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Of course, Claudia should not have been surprised. She was well-known within the high ranking officers of the Nazi army and the Gestapo both, of being a woman whose beauty rivaled that of Eva Braun and whose temper matched that of spitting Egyptian cobra. She had dated countless young up and coming officers, then left them with their heads spinning in the dust when another young officer of higher rank caught her eye. When Claudia brought Nicholaus home, Elsa and Ralf were overjoyed and relived. It seemed like their daughter was finally starting to calm down and Nicholaus was everything that her parents – especially her father – desired in a husband for Claudia. Wickedly handsome, fiercely intelligent, young, and vehemently loyal to the Fatherland, he was dark-haired haired and blue eyed; he was an unfairly charming Devil in a well-tailored uniform.

"It was a . . . it was a personal conversation out in the Garden. She threatened to tell you about it." Claudia admitted her eyes flashing dangerously as she put emphasis on the word 'threatening'. A look of dawning recognition appeared of Elsa's face and she turned around and gazed at her youngest daughter in disbelief.

"Gretel, you know better than to listen in on other people's conversations, especially conversations of that nature! It's very rude! And you especially don't go around telling people about them!" Elsa lectured her and Gretel averted her eyes to the tiles, blush tingeing her cheeks. It was constantly Elsa's job – not Ralf – to lecture Gretel when a fight broke out between their two daughters. Claudia was Ralf's blatant favorite as the child that was most like him than any other, and as such, Claudia could do no wrong in his book. Hell, to Ralf, Claudia hung the moon and made the stars to match. Even if a fight broke out between them, verbal or physical, it was always Gretel's fault, never Claudia's, even if she was the one who started it. It irked Gretel to no end and clawed relentlessly on Elsa's nerves sometimes.

Elsa smiled a tight smile at her youngest daughter before she patted the young girl on the back. "Now go up to your room and play. I have to talk to Claudia alone." Gretel nodded before she walked past her mother and older sister and left the room. They heard her clomp up the stairs a few seconds later and Elsa leaned on the counter, her back to her oldest daughter. When she turned around, Claudia could tell that her mother was desperately trying to hold back her anger.

"Claudia . . . I love you, God knows I do, but you have got to stop this!" She told her firmly, her hand slamming down on the wooden counter-top. "You do this every time you come back from the University and quite frankly, I'm sick of it! Ralf may think that you can do no wrong and that you hung the bloody moon, but quite obviously, I can see differently!" Claudia crossed her arms in front of her chest again.

"Well then maybe you should teach Gretel some manners." Elsa's mouth opened and closed in a loss for words.

"Claudia! Gretel _does_ have manners! But if you weren't talking to Nicholaus about . . . _that_, then maybe Gretel wouldn't have reacted like the way she did!"

Claudia adopted a look of fury on her beautiful face. "What I and Nicholaus talk about is none of your business mother –"

"You are my daughter –!"

"Who is also an adult in University!" Elsa closed her mouth at those words, and Claudia calmed down slightly. "And maybe I'm not the one who you should having the sex talk with, mother." Elsa gazed at her in alarm.

"What do you mean?"

"I hear that one of father's subordinates arrived here a couple of days ago, one of father's young subordinates."

"Claudia, I don't know –"

"Mother actually use your brain for once! Gretel is just now hitting the age where her body develops the . . . _desires_ . . ." Claudia trailed off and Elsa's eyes widened with a mixture between horror and disbelief that her daughter would bring this topic of conversation up.

"Claudia, don't talk like that! Gretel would never –!"

"Mother, please!" Claudia laughed, her eyes sparkling with callousness. "This officer is about eighteen or nineteen, I think is what father told me and believe me when I say that I'm around his kind all the time at the University. I know how they think and if Gretel develops girlish feelings for this officer based on the purely instinctual desires that her mind makes her believe are real, this young officer is not going to think of her in any way but a juvenile, easily misled cunt." The look of horror on Elsa's face was one that one gets when they first saw a murder occur before them.

"She wouldn't . . . Gretel, she . . ." Claudia's anger dissolved and sympathy for her mother replaced that anger.

"Believe me when I say I speak the truth mother. I told you this simply because I do love Gretel and I don't want her to get hurt," Claudia looked down at the tiled floor for a moment, before she turned her eyes back onto her mother, who was looking like she was going to be sick any moment now. Claudia rolled her eyes as she immediately crossed the room to her easily made sick mother. "Oh Jesus, come here mother, let's get you over to the sink . . ." Claudia crossed the floor and put her arm around her mother, where she led her over to the sink. Elsa put her hands on the rim, but did not vomit.

"Claudia . . . will that really happen?" She asked her daughter timidly and Claudia sighed.

"It might. Of course, there are some boys that do not think like that, but for every one of those, there are five that don't! Not-to-mention, Gretel is . . . young and ignorant. It would be easy." Elsa let out a sob as she put her hand to her mouth and nodded.

"Okay. I will talk to your father about it." Claudia smiled a small smile.

"I have to go do something; will you be fine on your own?" Elsa nodded and Claudia patted her mother on the back before she left the kitchen and walked down the hallway towards the front door, picking a book up from a nearby night-stand as she walked. She was going to the front courtyard in order to get some reading done for her Early Civilizations class at the University. Maybe Bruno would be there to keep her company.

She opened the two front doors and squinted in the bright sunlight, her hand moving to shield her eyes for a moment. Her eyes moved over to the tire swing tied to a tree beside the stone wall, unoccupied. Claudia sighed. Bruno was around here somewhere, but unfortunately, that somewhere was not here at the moment.

The doors swung gently closed behind her and Claudia descended the marble steps to the stone walk, her heels clacking loudly against the stone. The normal guard was standing at attention in front of the fence, the German Shepard sitting patiently at his side, panting. It was going to be another lazy, uneventful day.

A flash of wheat caught her eye and she turned to gaze in the direction the flash of color came from. Leaning against the family car on the other side of the courtyard, was a tall, handsome officer with wheat gold hair. The flash of color came from the sun beaming down on said hair. Could this be the new soldier that was the subject of her and her mother's heated conversation not a mere five minutes ago?

Claudia stopped a couple of feet away from the steps leading to the front door and just gazed at him for a moment. He was polishing his gold pocket-watch, making it shine even brighter in the early morning sun. Claudia held the book in front of her and her head rose again in pride as she put on her most imperious Commander's-Daughter, front.

"You leaning up against the car there!" When he didn't answer, her lips pursed in slight anger and impatience. "Soldier, I'm talking to you!" The man immediately looked up at her at this and Claudia saw that he had the most gorgeous blue eyes she had ever seen. She was temporary speechless but quickly regained her footing.

"What are you doing?"

He gestured to the pocket-watch sitting in his hand. "I am polishing my watch, madam." He told her in the most respectful 'duh' sounding voice and Claudia nodded.

"Yes, I can see that. Why aren't you working?"

A look of amusement appeared in his eyes then. "Are you going to town today?" A look of confusion appeared in Claudia's eyes.

"No I am not . . . why?"

"Then I guess I have no work to do. I'm the driver." He gestured to the car behind him with a flick of his head and a look of fury split across Claudia's eyes. The impudent . . .

"D-Do you know who you are addressing?" She asked him, her fury barely contained and he nodded, performing a flamboyant bow.

"_Ja_, you are the daughter of _der Commander_." Claudia nodded.

"Yes, I am. Do you know what I could say to my father about you –?"

"What would you say to him, _lieben_?" He interrupted her in amusement and Claudia swallowed.

"Your impudence –"

The Soldier laughed heartily at that, successfully interrupting her for a second time. "I'm sorry _lieben_, but if you think I am being impudent, I hate to see what kind of men you affiliate yourself with!" Claudia was seething with rage by this point of their conversation.

"What is your name, _Soldier_?" She demanded angrily and the Soldier grinned as he performed another flamboyant bow.

"Lieutenant Kurt Kotler at your service, _lieben_ –"

"_Stop calling me that_!" She yelled at him, her hands balling into fists at her sides and her eyes closing in anger. "I am not your _lieben_, nor will I ever be!" Kurt adopted a look of intense pain on his face and clutched at his chest dramatically, right where his heart was located.

"Oh, then you have broken my heart _fraulein_!" He exclaimed theatrically, replacing one term of endearment for another and Claudia growled inwardly.

"_Ugh_!" She threw her hands up in the air in frustration before she twirled around and marched back up the stairs to the front door. She grabbed the door handle and turned around to glance at him. His blue eyes twinkled in the light as well as his hair. Whatever then, Gretel could have this cocky, impudent soldier. Right now, Claudia didn't care. Claudia though vaguely of Nicholaus, with his pride and dark good looks and noble bearing, as well as a keen intelligence and a maturity that this soldier didn't seem to have.

She roughly pushed one of the doors open before she slammed it back so hard, the colored panes in both doors rattled gently. Kurt Kotler chuckled lightly to himself as he went back to polishing his watch.

* * *

_Kurt Kotler's POV_

He was captivated by her.

Claudia Tischler was gorgeous; her father's descriptions of her hardly did her beauty justice, however. She was also erratic and when she would get angry, such a beautiful flush would appear on her face and a stormy look would appear in her eyes that would betray her anger, no matter how hard she tried to mask it. It made her look even more gorgeous, even more deadly and that's what Kurt liked about her . . . her anger.

He couldn't help but think what a wonderful partner she would be in bed. She would be angry and defiant, but when she would succumb . . . the whole world would shake and tremble in their wake.


	2. Chapter 2

Claudia . . . was furious.

She had formally decided, later up in her room after the confrontation between her and Kurt had taken place, and that she flat-out _despised _Lieutenant Kurt Kotler. He embodied everything in a man that she despised. She despised his cocky arrogance, his beautiful blue eyes and handsomely chiseled face. She hated how good he looked in his uniform, how his eyes were as deep and as fathomless as the very ocean.

She was attracted to him . . . and that was why she hated him.

Claudia had also formally decided that she would have nothing to do with him. She would ignore him, make him think she didn't care and have him beg for her forgiveness for his impudence. She had planned all that and by the time dinner was ready, she was one hundred percent positive that things would be fantastic for her welcome home dinner.

That was, until she saw him.

Lieutenant Kotler was standing in the archway of the brightly lit dining room, talking to her father and dressed in that irritatingly well-fitted suit that looked so damn good on him. Her father excused himself and Gretel immediately took his place seemingly a split-second later. She chattered to him like a lovesick schoolgirl and Kurt, bless him, stood there, smiling, acting the part of the perfect gentleman. Claudia smiled a small smile as she put a hand on the well-oiled mahogany banister and started to make her way down the stairs. She was wearing a slinky number, the height of Parisian fashion. It was a backless, emerald green colored halter gown that fitted her curves in all the right places and was made of the finest silk her father's money could buy. It ballooned around her feet at the end and swept the floor as she walked, giving her the illusion of walking on the very air itself.

Poor Gretel didn't stand a chance once Kurt saw Claudia moving gracefully down the stairs. She smiled nostalgically at the keen feeling of empty space beside her. She was long used to walking on the arm of the handsome Nicholaus Reinhardt when she was wearing dresses like these and the couple's exotic good looks always earned them many awed stares and jealous titters when they would walk past groups of people at parties, premieres and charity events hosted by the army and the government that Nicholaus would oftentimes get invited to. These events would constantly have Claudia ordering new dresses (for who would honestly wear the same dress a second time) and every one of her dresses were slinky and beautiful, causing the young woman to look akin to a Goddess, something that Claudia knew Nicholaus adored and found very arousing.

Kurt was captivated, yet again as he gazed up at her, and poor Gretel was losing the battle.

Claudia reached the bottom and moved swiftly past Kurt without even a glance in his direction, her head held high in pride, heading straight for her father, whom was talking with a servant over that night's dinner. Ralf caught sight of his favorite daughter and beamed pridefully as he held out his arms.

"Oh, there is my beautiful _fraulein_!" Ralf greeted her as he hugged his daughter to him tightly. "How is the University?" Claudia smiled and nodded as they broke apart.

"Wonderful father, thank you." She told him and Ralf nodded.

"Good, that is very good. Now, please everyone, let's sit down and eat. Darling, you can sit next to Lieutenant Kotler if you do not mind . . ." Everyone started filing into the dining room as Ralf leaned down to murmur something in his daughter's ear. "Between you and me, I would sit you next to your mother, but the poor boy needs a break from Gretel! She has her claws sunk into him like a tiger and I think he looks at her more as a predator than anything else . . ." Claudia grinned and laughed a little, but she still felt the vague urge to choke the life out of her father.

Claudia moved around the table to the chair next to Kurt, who smiled sweetly and pulled her chair out for her. Gretel shot her a jealous look, but the look was soon wiped off her face as she saw Claudia yank the chair out of his grip, sit down and then scoot in her own chair. Kurt smiled, saving face as he sat down next to her, unfolded his napkin and placed in his lap like everyone else.

The first course was served and while everyone dissolved into their own separate little conversations – Elsa and Ralf, and then Gretel and Bruno – Kurt, turned to Claudia.

"I apologize for this morning. I was completely out of line, madam." He told her and Claudia scoffed as she took a sip of her soup from her spoon.

"I don't want your apologies, Herr Kotler. Do me a favor and take them and shove them where the sun does not shine." She told him without losing face and another look of amusement appeared on Kurt's face as he chuckled lightly.

"I find you . . . intensely amusing, Madame Claudia." He told her and Claudia turned her eyes up onto his, a challenging sparkle to them.

"Tell me; what are your intentions towards my sister, Herr Kotler?"

Claudia smiled smugly inside when she saw the amusement immediately wiped from his eyes and face. Kurt was stunned and rightfully so. He, like her, however, was an expert at quickly regaining his balance and that was exactly what he did. He gazed at her with polite inquiry. "I am afraid that I do not know what you are talking about, Madame." Claudia took another sip from her spoon.

"No, of course you don't. Selective amnesia, all men have it."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Claudia shrugged nonchalantly.

"I just happen to know how men like you think and it is quite obvious that poor Gretel thinks she is love with you. I simply want to know what your intentions with my sister are." She told him and Kurt smiled a tight smile.

"It is not your sister, Madam Claudia that I desire in my bed . . ."

Claudia swallowed heavily, her eyes unable to leave his. Did he just . . . was she . . . no, no, it couldn't be.

"Claudia, how do you like your studies so far?"

Claudia and Kurt finally broke their heated gaze and turned to gaze at Ralf instead, from whom the question had come from. Claudia smiled a small smile at her father. "They are very interesting, so far and I do like them." She told him and Ralf nodded in approval as the second course was served and he cut into his slice of chicken.

"That is very good. I and your mother had hoped that you would have brung Nicholaus, but I see that you have not." Kurt glanced at Claudia in inquiry, only to see a look of slight nausea appear on her face. He found himself wondering why.

"He will be arriving in a couple of days. He is happy that he will finally be able to see you again and he thanks you for the invitation to join us here for the summer." Ralf and Elsa smiled in approval and smiled at each other. Bruno immediately perked up.

"Is that so? He's coming again! Great! I want to show him my tire swing and my football and the other adventure stories I've read!" Bruno adored Nicholaus, another thorn in Claudia's side. She knew that if Bruno adored Nicholaus, she would never be able to break it off with him in good conscious. Bruno meant too much to her in order for her to hurt him so bad. Elsa smile indulgently at her only son.

"I am happy too, Bruno, we all are!" She told him, but Kurt noticed when Claudia subtly turned her gaze back onto her food, her fork aimlessly shifting the food around the plate now, her appetite gone. Kurt smiled a small smile as he gently took her hand underneath the table, the one resting on her thigh. She gasped and gazed up at him, where he smiled sympathetically and squeezed her hand lovingly. It was such an intimate, loving gesture that Claudia was struck dumb for a moment.

"Who is this Nicholaus?" He asked her quietly, but her father overheard him and answered for her.

"Nicholaus is Claudia's beau. We are hoping fiancé, soon." He told him and Kurt nodded, but glanced back at Claudia when she gently slid her hand out from under his and used it to pick up her glass of wine so that she could take a sip. She knew Gretel was burning angry holes into them at that moment, but she didn't care.

"How long have you been seeing each other, Madame Claudia?" Kurt asked, mainly her, as he too cut into his chicken. Claudia felt a roiling of anger at him, but she answered nonetheless.

"About three months now. We are very happy and I do expect him to propose to me over this visit home. About time too, if you ask me." She said the last sentence while gazing him in the eyes, seemingly trying to stamp the message home, but Kurt only smiled indulgently instead.

"Well then, by God, I hope he's the one."

At that moment, Claudia didn't know whether to strangle Kurt Kotler or shove his fork down his enticing throat.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi all! I do not own the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, although I do own Claudia and I WISH I own Lieutenant Kurt Kotler, but hey, I kind of am when I hook him up with my protagonist :D.**

**So yeah, anyway, there is some speaking of the French language in this chapter, and I tried my best to translate, but anyway, if anyone does see any errors, please, tell me about them so that I can correct them!**

**Anyway, let's get to the feature presentation!**

**- Nagiana**

* * *

It was a hot, balmy day; insufferable really. The sun hung smoldering and unforgiving in the cloudless blue sky and almost every window in the manor was open in order to offer some sort of relief to the unfortunate people trapped inside its walls. Claudia was sitting on the window seat of her bay window, looking down on the courtyard below. She was wearing a slinky silk, light pink robe that Nicholaus had given her for her last birthday (a very fun birthday, Claudia reflected with a lazy smile). She was completely naked underneath, her feet were barren of socks or shoes and her hair was clipped back into a messy ponytail behind her head. Claudia was miserable, Hell, everyone was miserable today. Even her father had been short with her today because of the insufferable heat, and that almost never happened.

Everyone was miserable, however, except for the two in the courtyard.

Kurt was washing the car, a fitting exercise for today's heat and Gretel was leaning up against the car beside him, trying to look attractive in a new yellow sundress that made her look like an egg cooked sunny-side up and a Nazi newspaper in her hand. Bruno was swinging gently in his tire swing a couple of meters away, reading an assignment from him and Gretel's tutor, Herr Liszt and a look of boredom on his cute features. Kurt said something and Gretel laughed flirtatiously, arching her back from the car and sticking out her barely-growing breasts, trying to entice him.

Claudia laughed lightly as she let her head fall back, where it gently hit the wooden wall she was sitting up against with a soft 'thud'. Oh, it was times like these when she dearly missed Nicholaus's presence. At the look of boredom flitting across her features on such a hot day like this, he would have done dragged her to the bed, had them both stripped of all clothing and would be inside her before Claudia's brain even registered what was happening. They would make love as languid and as warm as the day was and Claudia had to admit, no matter how much she hated him at the moment, that Nicholaus Reinhardt was the best man that she had ever had in bed so far. They would have done it despite the heat if only it would have staved off the impending death by boredom.

Oh, it would and when they were done, the day always seemed a Hell of a lot cooler than before they started.

Of course, if Claudia wanted to . . . if she had nothing better to do, that is, it would be quite easy to steal Kurt's affections from Gretel. Gretel was just a little girl, with her board-like body and barely-there tits. Claudia would be eye fodder for Kurt if she chose to be.

On second though . . . Claudia _was_ kind of bored . . .

She stood up and moved languidly over to her mirror, where she gazed at herself in the polished glass for a moment, finally seeing the dainty features that Nicholaus had supposedly fallen in love with and smiled when she realized that she did indeed somewhat miss the Lieutenant Colonel.

Claudia unclipped her hair and tossed it around her head, making it look like she had just woken up. It was still early, so that would be a suitable excuse. She decided to go barefoot and not wear flats or socks. It was too hot for shoes anyway. Hell, if Nicholaus were here, he would have said it was too hot for even clothes, but he wasn't and she couldn't exactly shut herself in her room all die. Now that would surely kill her.

She tied the sash of her robe more firmly around her waist and headed down the hall, down the stairs and then down the hall towards the front door, acting like she was going outside to enjoy the sunshine or to go say good morning to Bruno.

She opened one of the front doors and stepped out, where Claudia's eyes widened impossibly in slight surprise. It seemed cooler out here, than it did in the house! Actually, that was probably why Bruno was out here reading in the first place.

Gretel still had a flirtatious grin on her face, but that was swept from her face when she saw Claudia standing on the front steps, barefoot and clad in nothing but a slinky robe that outlined the curves and bust line that Gretel could never hope to have until she hit eighteen. Her face fell some, but then perked up in determination. Claudia grinned as she descended the steps and made her way past them to Bruno. It was sad, really, that Gretel thought she could compete.

Claudia stooped down on her haunches next to Bruno. "Hey little man, what are you reading?" Bruno gazed at her in boredom.

"I'm reading my homework. It's very boring." Claudia grinned.

"Why don't you explore?"

"I've already explored the garden! I want to explore the back garden!" Claudia cocked her head inquisitively.

"Why won't mummy and daddy let you explore the back garden?" Bruno shrugged his shoulders.

"I dunno . . . they're dumb." Claudia smiled and chuckled in amusement as she ruffled his hair and stood.

"I'll talk to daddy about it, how's that?" Bruno grinned and nodded.

"That'd be great! Thanks, Claudie!" He thanked her excitingly and Claudia nodded and grinned as she turned around and headed for Gretel, Kurt and the soapy car, much to Gretel's chagrin.

"Good morning Gretel. How are you this fine morning?" Claudia asked her and Gretel nodded, swallowing.

"I'm good . . . you?"

Kurt glanced at Claudia as he swept the soapy rag over the car and Claudia felt his eyes roving her body as she stretched, standing up on her tip-toes and reaching for the sky. She grinned at the feeling, which was the same exact thing Nicholaus used to do while he sat at the table eating breakfast and reading the newspaper before he had to report for duty at the army dockyards. He had always kept his eyes on her until she looked at him, in which case a look would flash in his eyes that gave Claudia the incentive to run from the room, grinning and laughing. Nicholaus would oftentimes be hot on her heels, grinning and laughing as well, a predatory look of desire in his eyes. He would catch her, however, he always ended up catching her, and he would pick her up in his arms, their lips locked and his fingers shedding her clothes from her lithe, corded body as he carried her to whatever flat surface he was nearest to, most often the wall itself, in order to make love to her one last time before he had to leave.

"I slept good, thank you for asking. I can't sleep late at school, so I revel when I am able to sleep in an extra hour and don't get yelled at!" Gretel nodded, but still looked crestfallen that Claudia had joined them. Claudia turned her eyes onto Kurt.

"How about you, Lieutenant, did you sleep well?" She asked him, leaning on the car, her arms crossed on the hood. Kurt turned his eyes onto her for a split second, before they flitted down to her bared cleavage and in that split second, Claudia did not know why, but she blushed and stood up, where she moved a lock of her hair behind her ear. Kurt smiled a small smile and went back to washing the car.

"I slept very well, Madam Claudia, to answer your question." He answered her and Claudia nodded, but she sensed a double meaning behind the words. "You speak French, do you not?" Claudia nodded.

"Yes, I can a little . . . why?" Kurt ignored her and gestured with his head to Gretel standing beside him.

"_J'ai fait l'amour avec vous dans mes rêves la nuit dernière._" (1) He spoke without missing a beat, both in washing the car, and the steeliness of his expression. Claudia however, blushed and her eyes widened slightly.

"How dare you! I demand to know why!" She demanded of him, her voice croaky with an emotion that she could not place. Kurt looked up and leaned on the hood of the car, a look of smugness in his eyes and on his face.

"_Parce que je veux savoir ce que vos goûts chatte comme_." (2) He told her slowly and bluntly and Claudia's blush grew deeper. She was speechless, but at the same time, she was intrigued. She leaned on the hood, the same as he and a sultry grin graced her features. Kurt's grin grew a little bit wider as well. Fine, she would play his game.

"Really . . . did you like it?" Kurt laughed a little.

"Yes, it was very satisfactory." He replied.

"What was so satisfactory about it?" She asked in interest and one of Kurt's eyebrows rose.

"You sure you want to know?" He asked and Claudia nodded.

"Yes . . . I think I might." Kurt grinned before he glanced back at Gretel to make sure she couldn't hear. Gretel was silently steaming that she could not be in on the conversation. Kurt then leaned across the car and whispered in her ear,

"It was when you came, Claudia . . . so hard on my cock . . . that fireworks seemed to explode. The world seemed to quake and I awoke with such a . . . _desire, _that I could hardly think. I think I'm falling in love with you." Claudia turned to gaze at him, where she swallowed.

"It was _just_ satisfactory?" She asked and Kurt smiled a small smile and shook his head.

"_Nei. Det var fenomenalt_." (3)

She gazed at him, her voice still choky. _"Voulez-vous venir. . . ce soir_?" (4)

Kurt grinned. "Watch for me."

* * *

**(1) I made love with you in my dreams last night**

**(2) Very rough translation that I do not deem appropriate to write here, considering Claudia's reaction ;) Look it up if you must . . .**

**(3) No. It was phenomenal**

**(4) Will you come . . . tonight?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the insanely short chapter! I didn't know what else to contribute to this chapter, and the content in itself speaks volumes, so yeah . . .**

**Enjoy, and I'll try and update as fast as I can! Remember, I got like . . . twenty other stories that I got to update on too!**

* * *

When the quiet knock resounded on the wood of Claudia's bedroom door, she immediately rose from her bed and answered it. Kurt quickly entered her room and closed the door in case someone should see (namely Gretel), and then turned around. Claudia gently took Kurt's hand and backed towards her bed. She fell down on it, moving so that he was lying on top of her. She was absolutely silent, her chest rising and falling underneath her white silk nightgown. Kurt reached a hand down to her face and felt something wet and hot against his hand.

"Why are you crying, Claudia?" He asked her quietly in slight wonderment and shock and Claudia said nothing in return, just shook her head.

"No reason Kurt." Kurt pulled her towards him, wiping ineffectually at her face with his hand and then he leaned into her sobbing face and, tentatively, uncertain of whether or not he was doing the correct thing given the circumstances, he kissed her, full upon her burning lips.

There was a moment of slight hesitation and then her mouth opened against his and her tongue slid into his mouth and he was, under the wooden and plaster ceiling of Claudia's bedchamber; utterly, irrevocably in Heaven for the first time in years.

Kurt had kissed before with other women and girls when he was younger and even made love to a select few, but he had never done so with so much love in his heart . . . with any of them before.

His hands felt her breasts through the silk of her nightgown, touched the hard nubs of her nipples. She clung to him, hard, as if she were drowning, fumbling with his shirt, with his pants, him, with her nightgown.

Claudia was so small, Kurt was scared that he would hurt her and break her. He did not though, much to his relief. She wriggled and writhed beneath him, gasping and moaning and guiding him with her hands.

She placed a hundred burning kisses on his face and chest and then she was above him, straddling him, gasping and laughing, sweating and slippery as a minnow and he was arching and pushing and exalting, his head full of her and only her, his sweet Claudia.

At the end, he would have pulled out, but she held him inside her, wrapped her legs around him, pushed against him so hard that he felt that the two of them occupied the same place in the universe. As if, for one powerful, engulfing moment, they were the same person, giving and receiving, as the moon grew brighter, shining down onto the floor of the bedroom.

He flipped Claudia over and pressing her into the bed, he entered her again, gently moving inside her and she rocked her hips against his, their moans filling the air again. Her gasps were sharp and pleasure-filled and her fingernails bit down into his bare shoulders, into the skin of his back. Kurt's hands fisted into the sheets, his eyes closed and his mind was filled with only Claudia. They climaxed together again not soon after that and he pulled out and collapsed on the bed beside her, where he took her into his arms. They lay like that until morning, when the shouts of the maids could be heard to come down for breakfast.

And in the morning, Claudia vaguely wondered if she had indeed murmured Nicholaus's name when she came like she thought she did.

* * *

It was cooler the next morning. The sun didn't hang so high in the sky and dark clouds rumbled in, signifying rain. The air was cooler now too, the wind had a bitter chill that was not customary in the dead of summer. Claudia sat on her customary window seat, gazing out at the gloomy front courtyard, smoking a cigarette and occasionally looking behind her to gaze at the sleeping Lieutenant Kurt Kotler in her bed.

Claudia turned her head to gaze back outside and took a long drag of her cigarette. It was funny, and sort of ironic. Just a couple of days ago, she had convinced herself that she hated the very thought of Kurt. She despised seeing him, thinking of him, even hearing his name uttered in polite conversation. But with the events of last night, she found herself thinking of him with a lot more fondness in her heart.


	5. Chapter 5

"King me."

Claudia pursed her lips in irritation and Kurt held back a grin as Claudia reluctantly placed a checker piece on Kurt's. She always hated checkers. Quite frankly, she didn't know why she was playing the game now.

Claudia moved her red piece and Kurt expertly performed an elaborate move, felling three of her pieces in one go. Claudia groaned and fell back on the bed. She gazed up at the ceiling. "I hate checkers." She spoke quietly and Kurt grinned and laughed.

"Is there _anything_ that you like to do?" He asked her, immediately knowing that he was going to get a snarky comment in return.

Claudia turned her head to gaze at him and he raised an eyebrow in inquiry. Claudia smiled as she shifted back onto her side, her elbow propping her on her pillow. It was a lazy rainy day and Kurt's day off. Her father was at a meeting with fellow army generals and her mother was off with Bruno doing something of no worth and neither knew what Gretel was doing. Kurt and Claudia decided to lie in bed all day, leaving only to use the bathroom and get something to eat or drink.

"I like to read. Write. You know . . . intellectual things." She told him absently and Kurt nodded.

"My father was a professor. He taught literature and philosophy at the University of Berlin. When the Fuhrer came to power, he was fanatically against his views for what Germany could become. He disowned me for joining the army and fled to Switzerland when he was targeted by the Gestapo for his beliefs." He told her and Claudia nodded.

"Do you talk to him anymore?" Kurt shook his head.

"No. Not anymore. When my mother, she . . . before she died, she kept in touch with me but after her death . . . father seemed to drop off the face of the earth. I don't know if he's in Switzerland anymore, Hell, I don't even know if he's alive anymore." He confessed and Claudia nodded again. Kurt glanced at her as he toyed with a checker piece.

"What else do you like to do?"

Claudia grinned. "I like to make love . . ." She had received that particular passion from Nicholaus, who was not only very good at it, but loved to do it often and wasn't a prick during the event. He told her one night after their ritual lovemaking session, that to him sex was like sailing a ship; do it wrong and everyone gets sick but do it right, however, and there's no greater feeling in the world like it.

Needless to say, Nicholaus was very good at sailing a ship.

Kurt grinned as he glanced at her again. "Well, I know that!" He told her sarcastically, yet playfully and Claudia grinned and laughed. It was short-lived, however, before she gazed solemnly at Kurt.

"What do you think about . . . all this?" Kurt looked at her.

"You mean the war?" Claudia nodded and Kurt sighed.

"I use to think that . . . it was noble, what we are doing. I use to think that we were doing the right thing and not . . . being brainwashed like my father used to say," Kurt shrugged. "I suppose I don't know what to think anymore . . ." He trailed off then and Claudia reached over, where she gently smoothed a lock of his blonde hair out of his face. "What about you?"

Claudia shrugged. "I'm fiercely against it." She told him nonchalantly and Kurt gazed at her in surprise.

"Really, you are?"

Claudia nodded. "Of course I am." Kurt held out his hand.

"Okay, okay, let me get this straight! You are the daughter of one of the most influential concentration camp commanders in Europe and also the fiancé –"

"Girlfriend, you mean."

"Fine, girlfriend; of one of the Gestapo's most promising young officers and you do not agree with what the army is doing? I'm sorry Claudia, but that's kind of hard to believe!" Claudia withdrew her hand from his face and gazed at him.

"Do you want to know why?"

Kurt shrugged. "Sure, I suppose I am kind of curious." He confessed and Claudia nodded.

"Okay, my freshman year at the university, when Hitler first came to power and a few months before I met Nicholaus and moved in with him, there lived a little Jewish girl down the street from my flat, okay?" Kurt nodded.

"Okay . . ."

"Well, she was the most adorable little girl you would ever have seen. Her name was Rosaline and she always wore her hair up in pigtails and she always carried this little, um . . . _doll_ – this porcelain doll – that was always with her, it never left her side, not once! Well, we became very close. She would come to see me every day at the café down the street and I would always buy her a hot chocolate and we would talk. Well, one day, she came and told me that she would be going away tomorrow and that she may or may not come back. I asked why and she could never give me a straight answer or reveal too much, no matter how I phrased the question. That fallowing afternoon after we drank our chocolate, I said goodbye to her. That evening, on my way back from the library, I saw some officers dressed in black dragging a family out of an apartment. It was Rosaline's family, Kurt! I screamed and shouted for help, but no one would come! I saw little Rosaline break away from the officers holding onto her arm and run to me. I took her in my arms and while I trying to soothe her, they shot her! They shot her in my arms, Kurt! And that damned little porcelain doll was blasted into smithereens at my feet and there was _nothing_ that I could do about it! She was a little girl, Kurt! She was innocent! I screamed that I was the daughter of Herr Tischler, but they didn't listen! The little girl died in my arms!"

Claudia buried her face in her hands and let out a sob. "After that day, I swore to God that I would never bear a child in a country where a man like Hitler was in power." She told him darkly. Claudia then shook her head as she took her face out of her hands and ran her fingers through her long, dark hair.

"You must think I'm childish . . ." She told him and Kurt shook his head adamantly.

"No! No, I do not! Claudia, she _died_ in your _arms_! I completely understand how you feel!" Claudia gazed at him.

"How can I marry someone who works for the very man that I despise?" She asked him and Kurt shrugged.

"Then don't marry Nicholaus."

It seemed like such a simple solution, but it was one that Claudia knew she could not entertain.

She shook her head. "No. Father would never allow it." She admitted and Kurt shrugged as he looked down.

"I did something . . . your father won't be pleased with it . . ." He slowly admitted and Claudia's gaze snapped onto him.

"What did you do?"

Kurt gazed up at her, fighting to hold back his laughter at her angry, possessive tone. They had been sleeping together for about two months now underneath the noses of Claudia's parents and most importantly, Gretel. She was still fiercely infatuated with Kurt, no doubt the result of her raging hormones, but Kurt had no idea that Claudia cared for him nearly as much as her tone of voice betrayed her with.

"It's nothing relatively bad. I just . . . might have accidentally informed your mother that the camp a few miles down the road was burning Jews."

Claudia gazed at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. "How could you be so stupid?" She asked him shrilly and Kurt flinched.

"Claudia! Please, calm down!" He begged her and Claudia pursed her lips for a moment before she started again, her voice lowered substantially.

"How could you?"

"I didn't outright tell her okay? It was by accident!"

"How was _that_ by accident!"

"She smelled the smoke, okay? I thought she knew and I made a snide comment!" He snapped back and Claudia nodded, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh really, what was the comment?"

At least Kurt had the guilt to look ashamed.

"I told her that didn't they smell worse when they were burning." He told her quietly, not able to meet her eyes and Claudia eyes grew wide with abject horror. Her lips then tightened and tears appeared in her eyes as she slapped him across the face. She was shocked at how much that hurt her to slap him, and then she realized the cruelty of his statement. Even though he worked for the Gestapo, Nicholaus was outwardly verbal and massively against the burning of the Jews and his views on the subject brought him under fire more than a number of times.

But still . . . he was better than Kurt.

Kurt gingerly rubbed his cheek with his hand. "I deserved that –"

"How _stupid_ are you!" Claudia hissed at him, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. "How could you be so self-absorbent?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Self-absorbent – Claudia, I didn't know!"

"Even if you did know, you shouldn't have said anything!" She shrieked at him. "Dammit, Kurt, if father figures out, which I doubt he will not, we won't be able to be together!"

Kurt was getting angry now too.

"Goddammit, why are you like this, Claudia!" He roared at her and Claudia let out an angry sob.

"I'm angry because I'm pregnant, Kurt!"

Kurt felt like she had slapped him again. His eyes widened in shock and for a moment, he couldn't speak. He was speechless.

"Claudia, I . . ." He spoke softly, his hand reaching out to her, but Claudia shrank away from him, away from his grasp. A hurt look appeared on Kurt's face, but it disappeared when he saw the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I promised myself I would never have a child while Hitler was in power . . ." She spoke quietly, and a look of hurt appeared on his face again. She turned her eyes onto his and spoke again, "But I cannot bring myself to hate the baby. Dammit Kurt, I love you, and you just condemned us!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey all, so sorry for the short chapter, but I kind of had no idea how to write what I wanted to say and this was the outcome.**

**The next chapter will be a lot longer and you'll finally meet the monkey wrench in Kurt and Claudia's relationship: Claudia's fiancé, Nicholaus!**

* * *

Gretel knew!

Oh dammit, how did Gretel find_ out_!

Claudia was pacing her room, her hands clasping her hair at the roots, her eyes wide with worry. She could not figure out how in the Hell that Gretel knew about her and Kurt's relationship, much less her rather . . . _taboo _pregnancy. She thought that she and Kurt had been careful, that they covered every single track, but apparently, she was wrong.

Gretel had come to her that morning, soon after Kurt had left a smug smile on her fat face and her arms crossed in front of her chest. Claudia had thought nothing was wrong and did nothing to cover the heated events of the previous night. She did not spray perfume to mask Kurt's scent, nor the scent of sex, nor straighten up the bed by throwing the pillows and comforter back on the bed.

So when Gretel entered the room in order to tell her that breakfast was about to be served, she took one look at the messed up bed, smelled the musky scent of the room and a smug look crossed her face that told Claudia that she and Kurt were about to be so deep in shit up to their eyeballs, that either of them would be lucky to escape her father's wrath alive.

* * *

Kurt had not been at dinner.

Claudia couldn't sleep. She was worried. She was sure that Gretel had told either their mother or their father and speaking that Kurt had not been at dinner, she had a good reason to be worried. It wasn't just worry for Kurt; it was worry for herself and the future of her baby. What would her father do when he figured out that Claudia was pregnant and not with Nicholaus's baby?

There was a quiet knock on her bedroom door and she furrowed her eyebrows in slight confusion as she threw aside the covers and moved to the door, shivering in the slight cold. Who could that be? It was very late in the evening, around midnight. Who the Hell would be knocking on her door?

She opened the door and saw Kurt standing on the threshold, leaning up against the doorframe, his eyes closed as he buried them in the uniform sleeve of his arm. He smelled of gin and whiskey.

Claudia crossed her arms in front of her breasts, where she raised her head in indifference and slight disgust. Drunkenness did not appeal to her. She had enough of the wild parties at the University to do her in for a long time and Nicholaus very rarely drank, if not ever. "What are you doing here? If father saw you hanging around my door like you've probably been doing for the past five or ten minutes, you'd be sent to the front lines! Does that not matter to you?" Kurt rubbed his face with his free hand as he used the other one to prop himself better up against the doorframe.

"I . . . I was ordered to kill a little boy today at the camp." He told her and an indiscernible look passed through Claudia's eyes then. She didn't know how to feel about what he just said, much less why he told her in the first place. Maybe the extreme amount of alcohol he had ingested caused his brain to fog over.

"Why . . . Kurt, I don't understand . . . why the Hell are you telling me this?"

"I didn't end up doing it," He told her miserably as he rubbed his face with his hands. "My actions shocked me, because normally I would have been indifferent to the matter. But another soldier did after I made up an excuse that I had a little too much to drink. He laughed and told me that he knew how I felt and then shot the poor boy right in front of me. His blood . . . his blood splattered all over me and I felt like . . . I felt like I had died a little inside. I immediately went and got fucking drunk after I burned my uniform covered in his blood." Claudia shrugged the same look of cold indifference on her face.

"Why did you have a change of heart? I thought you didn't care?" She asked him coldly and Kurt turned his eyes up to gaze into hers. His eyes were full of sorrow and pain.

"I couldn't kill him, Claudia . . . because before I could . . . I imagined him as our son or our daughter and . . . I suddenly couldn't pull the trigger. I imagined shooting our child and I suddenly wanted to weep. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. Not when you're pregnant with my kid." Claudia's expression softened as he continued,

"I realized then that I love you with everything in my heart and . . . and even though it's completely unfeasible, I want to get married and have this child and live so fucking far away from the Gestapo and the Nazis and Hitler and the War . . ." He trailed off then and Claudia smiled a small smile as she pulled him inside. She closed the door behind him and hugged him tightly.

"Thank God you realized!" She murmured against his uniform and he smiled a small smile as he hugged her close.

"I know . . . and it took me till now to figure it out." He answered her before going quiet. "What are we going to do?"

Claudia closed her eyes and sniffed. She had no idea. She had no bloody idea.


	7. Author's note

**I regret to inform you that there will be a temporary hiatus on all of my stories having to do with the fact that there is something wrong with the copy/paste mecanism in my computer, which is what I use to post my chapters on fanficiton. Whenever I try to copy/paste, both my internet and wordperfect (yeah, I know, I'm oldschool) show a 'Not Responding' box. Its just recently been doing this, and please, if anyone knows how to solve this, it would great! :)**

**So, until I figure out what is wrong with this, chances are that I will get VERY few oportunities to post. Again, I am really sorry for all my dedicated fans, including Superdani a., Kassey4221 and many others, I hoped to get this fixed very soon!**

**With love as always!**

**Nagiana**


	8. Chapter 7

**Yay! I've finally figured a way to get around the whole copy/paste thingy not working, so I'm going to try to update more regularly, but if there is a gap between story updates, it's probably because my computer figured out what I was doing and made my copy/paste thingy go haywire again.**

**Okay, this is probably going to piss off a lot of people who like my Kurt/Claudia pairing, and I swear - promise- that's it's still there, but the thing is, I wanted to show how much of a monkey wrench Nicholaus is going to be to Kurt and Claudia's relationship, and I think I did a very good job. Anyway, continuing to enjoy and review, review, review!**

**Nagiana**

* * *

Kurt was still floored.

He had never felt so flabbergasted in his life than hearing just six hours ago that he would become a father within a mere seven months. Of course, what did he think would happen? He showed up on Claudia's threshold nearly every night and they made love with reckless abandon, not giving a shit about the consequences. It never occurred to them that Claudia could become pregnant.

How completely stupid they had been.

What would her father do?

Kurt glanced at the opening front door and saw Claudia marching out, a black leather clutch in her hands and primping her hair as she walked down the steps. Kurt gazed at her as she neared him, at the smartness of her cranberry colored skirt and jacket, at the rope of black pearls at her throat, at the expensive black Parisian silk hat atop her head and could scarcely believe that not a mere five hours earlier, that she had been laying naked in his arms.

"I need to go to the train station." She told him shortly whilst fixing up her appearance in the window of the car; straightening the lapels of her jacket, the sitting of her dainty hat. Kurt gazed at her in curiosity.

"Why?"

Claudia gazed up at him and smiled a tight-lipped smile. "I have to go pick up Nicholaus and my grandfather, remember? I thought father reminded you. He said he would."

Kurt's eyes widened in shock at her words when they were spoken. He had totally forgotten!

"Oh of course, um . . . you want to sit up front, or . . ." He asked her awkwardly and Claudia smiled comfortingly, which made him feel slightly better. She straightened up and placed her hands on his shoulders, where she stood up on her tiptoes and pecked him on the lips. She backed away from him and grinned at the ruby red kissy mark left on his cheek from her lipstick. She smiled affectionately as she took out her handkerchief and gently wiped it away.

"Of course I will sit with you up front, _ma chere_ . . ." She told him quietly and Kurt smiled as he went around and opened the passenger side door, closing it when she got inside. He returned to the driver's side and got in the car. He pulled out of the front courtyard of the house, and soon, they were out onto the road, Claudia gazing out the window at the beautifully moving scenery of the forest that pasted them by in a quickly moving blur.

"What are we going to do?" Kurt asked her, his voice breaking the heavy silence between them, and Claudia turned to gaze at him, her eyebrows raised.

"What do you mean?"

"Nicholaus, what are we going to do about Nicholaus?" Claudia sighed as she returned to gazing out the window.

"I've been thinking Kurt . . . maybe we should just end this." Kurt's gaze snapped onto Claudia's for a few seconds before he was forced to return them onto the road.

"What are you talking about? Your father hasn't figured out yet –"

"Yes, but eventually he is going to Kurt!" Claudia interrupted him coldly as she took her eyes off of the changing scenery and onto him. "Gretel knows, Kurt! She knows about us! We are burning the candle at both ends now that I am pregnant," She scoffed then. "I can't believe how stupid I was in thinking that nothing would happen, that nothing would come of this. _Everything _has come of this, Kurt! I thought that I would be able to control this, our affair! How the Hell is I supposed to tell my father that I'm pregnant?" Kurt's hands had tightened on the steering wheel but he had said nothing until her next words. She sighed and closed her eyes as she spoke,

"I know what I'm going to do. It's a shitty thing to do but I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go home with Nicholaus, I'm going to accept his inevitable marriage proposal, sleep with him and then say that the baby is his –"

She would have continued, had not Kurt's appalled, slightly angry look not stopped her mid-sentence.

"What the Hell – how can you even entertain that idea?" He demanded loudly, slamming his open palm onto the steering wheel. Claudia laughed coldly.

"Well what else can I do Kurt? I can't marry you; my father would never allow it, not while he was living! I can't return to the University and take care of a baby at the same time and I refuse to abort it! What the _fuck_ am I supposed to do?"

Even though Kurt wanted desperately for another door to still be open at that time, he knew that there was not. There couldn't be. There were no opportunities to get out, for a man like him in his profession.

He sighed and his shoulders sagged visibly. "I know Claudia. I just wish it wouldn't come to this . . ." Claudia's expression dissolved into one of softness and sadness.

"I love you Kurt . . . more than you know. If there was another way, I would take it –"

"We could run away!"

"What?"

Kurt's face lit up as the idea popped into his head, and he let out an ecstatic grin. "Yeah, we could go now, in fact! Just us two and the clothes on our back – well, I'll ditch my uniform, but this could work, Claudia! We could scrape together all the money we have in the bank in Berlin and we'll make our way somewhere. I don't care where; England, Switzerland, even America! Hell, everything's possible now." Claudia shook her head. When she spoke, it was with an unexpected coldness that Kurt did not expect.

"Please try to think realistically Kurt. When the money ends, when we won't be able to get a train and a ship ticket to England or America, when my father tracks us down, when our baby is born, then what would we do Kurt?" She asked him and he sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know . . . it was a suggestion, nothing more! I think right now, all suggestions are welcome to me!" He told her, equally as coldly and they both sighed and dissolved into another uncomfortable silence. Kurt sat there driving, leaning on an arm that was propped up on the door of the car beside him, angry and almost disbelieving thoughts prancing on his mind. How could Claudia be like this? How could she be so narrow-minded, so selfish! He could barely believe that this was the woman he had given his heart to, who he had fallen so hopelessly in love with that he was almost a walking corpse without her! He couldn't believe that this was her final word, that could she dare to be so cold as to pass _his_ baby off as another's. He could barely believe it himself.

Claudia sat there in the seat beside him, her body tense, her eyes glued onto the road in front of them. Her hands were clenched in her lap, gripping her black leather clutch like it was a lifesaver, willing the tears to stay behind her eyes and to not spill forth down her cheeks. She was convinced that there was _nothing_ that they could do. She knew that it was possibly the most yellow-bellied, shittiest thing that she could do, to pass Kurt's baby off as Nicholaus's, but in this world, in this war, it was survival of the fittest. She would rather her baby be living in a safe, warm environment with a man that would love and adore him (or her, Claudia thought with dawning, almost giddy recognition) than constantly on the run from her enraged father who would stop at nothing to find them. She would rather put her baby's well-being ahead of hers and then at that thought, she knew with dawning recognition, that she was ready to be a mother.

* * *

Standing there on the platform of the train station, hidden from view by the milling crowd and the thick black smoke spat into the air from the trains, Claudia realized just how easy it would be to just leave. She could leave everyone and just go. She could leave Bruno, her mother, father, Gretel, even Nicholaus and Kurt. For a moment, a split second between her just standing there on the platform and her catching sight of her grandfather and future fiancé, she was tempted to. Like Eve in the garden, she was tempted to make the ultimate sin: to escape.

Later in her life, when she would gaze out the manor windows and watch her and Nicholaus's children play in the front courtyard that Bruno had played in with her and Kurt's child, Claudia would often wonder why she didn't escape at that moment. Also later in her life, whenever she would wonder that, she would answer her own question. When she thought back to that time on the train platform, waiting patiently for her grandfather and fiancé, she would remember the moment when her and Nicholaus's eyes caught and held each other's across from the milling crowd. She remembered feeling something close to relief and it was almost like a heavy burden had just been lifted from her shoulders when their eyes met. Nicholaus was stable. Nicholaus was familiar. Nicholaus was _there_.

Then, like a gardenia budding in the gentle grip of lovely spring, Claudia felt the feelings she had long since selfishly stomped into the ground. She felt the tiny buds of love, the blooming buds of affection she had long since unwittingly harbored for Nicholaus ever since she moved in with him, the affection she had held for him ever since he chased her and pressed her up against the wall for the first time, sliding almost effortlessly into her in the process.

Claudia grinned broadly when she saw her grandfather hobbling over to her, helped by Nicholaus, who had a firm, yet gentle grip on his forearm and shoulder. She hugged her grandfather tightly, feeling even more of her burden being slipped off her shoulders at her grandfather's light chuckling in her ear. They broke apart and her grandfather examined her, a mirthful light in his eye as he gripped her hand with a surprising strength.

"You get even more beautiful as you age, pip." He told her affectionately and she and Nicholaus grinned and laughed, Claudia's eyes already shining with the tears that she had forced back on the long, uncomfortable car ride there. Kurt immediately stepped forward and bowed, clacking his heels. Nicholaus nodded in greeting and Kurt took her grandfather gently by the arm, where they made off for the car, him and Claudia ignoring each other.

Nicholaus stepped forward, where he smiled weakly. Claudia smiled weakly back, her hands clutching her black leather clutch in front of her. Nicholaus had grown even more devilishly handsome since the last time she saw him, if it was possible. His eyes were still the same remarkable shade of emerald green, but his hair, originally dark brown like hers, was now a pitch black. His face had lost its slight boyish look and it was now more angular, sharply handsome.

"Hello, Claudia." He greeted her quietly and Claudia nodded in agreement, her tears welling up behind her mental dam to an almost painful level. Nicholaus sighed. "How have you been?" She shrugged then and at an attempt to mask her desire to sob, she took a shuddering breath and finally spoke.

"I'm fine. I'm good. How are . . . where are you stationed? I mean, I've sent letters to Avignon, but . . . but Braun told me you that had been stationed elsewhere." Nicholaus smiled ruefully. Braun Mekay was Nicholaus's best friend and a fellow General. He was surprised, actually, that she had been writing to him.

"I'm sorry I haven't written my address, Claudie, but I thought . . . I thought you wouldn't write back – I thought you hated me – and I suppose that was stupid of me to assume that. I'm actually stationed in Cologne now and . . ."

Nicholaus trailed off when he saw Claudia start to tremble before him, her eyes still glistening with unshed tears. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and gently grasped her by her upper arms. "Claudie, what's wrong?" He asked her worriedly and it was then, at the kindness and lovingness in Nicholaus's voice and grasp that Claudia's dam broke. She burst into tears, immediately covering her face with her hands, feeling every held back emotion from sadness to anger to frustration, peeling out of her in ocean waves.

Nicholaus immediately enfolded her in his arms, hugging her to him tightly, feeling her quivering in his arms with each sob that erupted forth from her. "I've just . . . I've missed you so much, Nicholaus!" She sobbed and in truth, she did mean it. Nicholaus had been her best friend since she enrolled in the University and even before their relationship began and she moved in with him, he had been there for her most rock-bottom moods.

Nicholaus smiled a small smile as he kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry Claudie . . . I would have wrote if I had known you would have been like this." He apologized and Claudia let out another sob at the fact that he was only a small sliver of the reason why she was crying, but knowing all the same that she was perfectly fine not telling him the true reasons.

* * *

If Claudia thought the ride to the train station had been awkward after her and Kurt's semi-first fight, then the ride home had been downright brutal. No words had been exchanged between her and Kurt, but looks that could kill, had.

Her grandfather had done most of the talking and Kurt, simply to avoid having that stupid awkward silence descend on them, talked about shit that didn't even matter to him anymore. Whether he did it just to hear his own voice that blocked out Claudia's, or just to avoid looking at the sight of her clutching Nicholaus's hand in the rearview mirror, he wasn't entirely sure. What he was sure of, however, was that he didn't care about anything anymore. Claudia had been his world, his center of the universe and he was just getting used to becoming a father. But then she had done this, dashed his hopes and dreams into the ground, putting her nose up in the air like he was scum, dirt on the bottom on his shoe. It made him bitter beyond belief. It made him angry beyond belief.

Riding home in the car, talking to Claudia's grandfather about how stupid Mussolini was being in Italy or how much of a crippling blow the Blitzkrieg in England had been for Germany, Kurt marveled at the fact at how intensely appealing his gun would be pressed against his head.

* * *

Claudia had not been the one that started the taking of the hands in back of the car on the ride home. She had been sitting there, with the same posture that she had held on her way to the train station, left to wallow in her own thoughts and feelings of self-pity and grief that she jumped at the feeling of Nicholaus's hand sliding into hers. She gazed at him, startled, but then relaxed when she saw the look of lovingness and amusement on his face. Claudia was harboring a secret, one that he would allow her to divulge to him in time. Claudia knew this and knew with a certainty that Nicholaus would never hurt her, would never leave her alone to contemplate feelings and thoughts that her parents' religion condemned.

Claudia smiled a small smile then and place her head on Nicholaus's shoulder, where she slept, mercifully, reveling in the feeling of their finger entwined on his lap.


	9. Chapter 8

**Okay, this chapter and the next one both contain a lemon and I realize that lemons in a fanfiction in this type of subject can ick people out, but if you know me, I'm huge on this being "fanfiction" and the human condition, both of which I am fiercely passionate about (just see the author's note in my Game of Thrones fanfiction :))., so yeah.**

**Normally, when I write a lemon, I put it in a chapter that if people are uncomfortable with it, they can skip over it and not miss a thing, however, I didn't do that in this chapter for my own mental reasons, and I certainly didn't in the next one (hell, the next one is like a shotgun blast to the chest lol). If you are uncomfortable with it, just quickly skim over it and you should be fine to carry on.**

**On a lighter, more sad note, I am afraid that we are coming to the end of this fanfiction :( (audience goes 'aww). I am writing two more chapters, including an eptilogue (can never spell that lol) after this chapter and then I'm through. I will have an author's note on the eptilogue, so I'll save all the sappy thank-yous until then :).**

**Enjoy!**

**Nagiana**

* * *

The room was completely pitch black except for the long, wide sliver of moonlight that streamed its way in through the bay window in front of the bed, casting blocks of light upon the hardwood floor. There was the rustle of bedsheets in the silence, the soft sound of bodies working in unison and the breathless moans and words of love that accompanied the rustle of bedsheets . . .

Claudia had never remembered a man feeling so right within her, than Nicholaus. Kurt came close, but he was nothing like Nicholaus. They were like puzzle pieces, made to fit together snugly, but not uncomfortably. His skin felt smooth and warm against hers as her hands moved to grip his biceps, her finger worrying at the raised scar tissue that was located there from when a bullet had grazed him on the battlefield seemingly so long ago. Her legs moved to lock behind his knees as he slowly thrusted against her, his lips pressed to the nape of her neck, nibbling at the skin located there as she answered him thrust for agonizing thrust.

For the entire night while they made love on and off, slow and fast, hard and soft, Kurt was far from her mind.

Nicholaus's lips left the nape of her neck and she automatically turned her face towards his, allowing him to kiss her, deeply, passionately and it seemed his tongue filled her too, with his heat, the heady taste of him. Their breath was coming out harshly through their noses but still, they did not part lips for long and when they were both close to the edge of the precipice, Nicholaus gently took her hands, entwining their fingers on the pillow above them, Nicholaus grabbing at the sheet when he knew he was close.

When they finally did come, it was together, both of them hurtling into the white-hot crevice below them, squeezing each other's hands until pins and needles appeared, both seeing stars explode behind their eyelids when they closed them. Nicholaus collapsed on top of her when he was done, careful to ease his weight on top of her and they stayed like that for a moment, Claudia drowsing off to sleep to the soothing feel of Nicholaus's lips lazily pressing kisses to her shoulder and neck, her throat and collarbone, him still nestled deep within her.

She didn't want to return to reality so soon, but it was inevitable and when she did return to her limp, satiated body, Kurt's memory wasn't far behind her.

"So how has Gretel been?"

Nicholaus's breathless voice broke through her warring thoughts and Claudia grinned at how her limbs felt like lead, knowing that Nicholaus was probably grinning as well at the wonderful weightlessness of their bodies.

"She's been annoying as usual." She told him and Nicholaus chuckled.

"I would be surprised if she wasn't." He pulled out of her, both of them shuddering at the electric feeling and he collapsed on the bed beside her, taking her with him.

"She's been flirting with this one soldier who's stationed here, but I don't think it's going to come to anything. It's almost amusing in a way." She chuckled and Nicholaus did the same as his fingers ran gently through her hair in a movement so soothing, Claudia felt herself drowsing off to sleep. Nicholaus was doing the same, for his movements slowed, became lazier but no less soothing. Everything about this man soothed her right now.

"She is young . . . full of hormones and her emotions all erratic . . ." Nicholaus stayed silent for a moment, so long that Claudia thought he had finally fallen asleep but he spoke a few minutes later. "I cannot help but feel more pity for the soldier than her!" They both laughed at that, allowing their voices to trail off as the sweat cooled their bodies and she felt Nicholaus pull her closer, almost protectively, his nose burying in her hair, inhaling deeply her scent of roses. His body became comfortably aware of her nailed fingers drawing slowly, lazily at the stretch of skin underneath his left nipple although his mind slowly became enveloped in a lazy, gray fog that lulled him off to sleep. His breathing slowed, his eyes grew as heavy as his satiated body was, but her movements had stilled.

"Nicholaus . . ."

He didn't bother opening his eyes when she spoke. "Hmm?"

"I've been thinking about a lot over these last few days before you arrived and I . . . I think I want to accept your proposal." Nicholaus's eyes shot open in sudden alertness, and he pulled away a little in order to gaze into her eyes, furiously searching hers for hints of being deceived, but he found none.

"Are you sure?" He asked her slowly and Claudia nodded as her fingers resumed their ministrations, and she leaned up and kissed him gently. He returned the kiss, although his mind screamed that something was amiss. For the longest time, Claudia had ranted and raved and screamed that she never wanted to get married, least of all to him until he reached the point where he stopped bringing the subject up. Now, however, she seemed changed. She was more subdued, quieter, more stoic. Whatever had happened to her had, had a profound effect on her but it had left her no less passionate in bed for their lovemaking now seemed to shake the very heavens. He would lying if he said he did not like this new change in Claudia, but he was curious, nonetheless.

"What brought about this change of heart?"

"Are you complaining?" She asked him in amusement and Nicholaus shook his head and grinned as he pulled her closer.

"No, of course not, but . . . this is just different than what I expected. Normally when I brought up this topic in the past, you would have ranted and raved and threw things at me but this time, you said you'd simply think about it. I'm just curious on what made you change your mind." Claudia shrugged.

"I've changed. I've grew up. I realized that I love you Nicholaus and I don't ever want you to leave." Well at least a few parts of her answer were the truth.

He promised that he would give her the ring in the morning, saying that he was too tired to try and find it in the dark at that moment, but Claudia whispered that she didn't care. She whispered that he could have given her a chewed pen cap as a ring and she still would have accepted it.

And the more she thought about it, she more she realized that it was true.

* * *

That morning at breakfast was an awkward time. There no awkwardness between her and Nicholaus or Nicholaus and her family (actually, the friendly conversations between Nicholaus and her family was what staved off the feeling of inevitable awkwardness) but between her and Kurt.

Lieutenant Kotler sat across from her at the table, beside Bruno who picked at his food in boredom. He glared at Nicholaus over his food the whole time, looks of daggers that were laced with the deadliest of poisons. Nicholaus didn't notice, however, something that Claudia was thankful for, for even though Nicholaus was technically his superior officer and could demand a reason for his impertinence, Claudia did not want an angry Kurt spilling all their secrets . . . the secrets she now tried to forget.

Kurt found himself wondering if Claudia had told him she was pregnant. He wondered if she had told him that the baby was his, that he was expecting a child that was not, in fact, his. But judging from the fact that he had only just arrived yesterday afternoon, Kurt highly doubted it. His eyes lingered on the spot under the table where Nicholaus had taken her hand and kept it and he wanted to vomit every time Nicholaus gave her a loving look, a look that screamed of a hidden secret and when he winked at her, causing Claudia to grin broadly, Kurt knew there was definitely something between them and it wasn't exactly the mind-blowing sex they probably had, had the previous night.

Elsa was the first who caught the tiny glimmer on Claudia's hand when Nicholaus brought the back of her daughter's hand to his lips and caught the secretive glimmer in both of their eyes. Elsa remembered grinning and laughing, nudging Ralf in the side to get his attention.

"Claudia, darling, is that a ring?"

The whole table went silent, including Bruno, who was pushing around his eggs on the plate while quietly making airplane noises, and Claudia and Nicholaus immediately felt every pair of eyes boring holes into them, most notably the Lieutenant's. Claudia broke out into a grin and clutched at a grinning Nicholaus's arm, where she hugged him silently.

"Yes. He proposed yesterday afternoon and I finally told him yes last night." She answered her mother and Elsa and Ralf both broke out into beams of happiness. There was the cacophony of congratulations and well-wishes shooting at them across the table, Nicholaus thanking them profusely but Claudia did not. Her broad grin slowly dissolved from her face when she realized that the only one who was not offering their congratulations and well-wishes, was Kurt.

He gazed at her in a mixture between sorrow and betrayal and Claudia couldn't help the flood of guilt that passed through her body at the sight.


	10. Chapter 9

**Okay, so here comes the lemon thats like a shotgun blast to the chest and what, I like to refer, as the final nail in the coffin of Claudia and Kurt's relationship. So, if you dont like lemons in this type of fanfiction, just skim over it or completely skip it, your choice because the last two chapters will have no lemons at all, I don't really care lol**

**Okay one more chapter and then the eptilogue! *sniff*, Im about to cry! :(**

**Enjoy!**

**-Nagiana**

* * *

Any emotion that Kurt felt at Claudia's betrayals and at her and Nicholaus's earlier announced engagement, materialized in blinding anger and rage.

He was angry at Gretel for not leaving him alone when he so needed to be alone to think. He was angry at Ralf for heaping more and more duties onto him in this time when he needed to be alone and not called upon at will. He was angry at Bruno for no particular reason and he was angry at Nicholaus for even being alive.

But the one person he was infinitely angrier at was Claudia.

Claudia . . . the woman he had fallen so deeply in love with, it hurt him to be away from her for too long. But now whenever he gazed at her, it wasn't love he felt above all other things (true, it was still _there)_ it was anger and rage and hurt. It was Claudia who carried his son or daughter, Claudia who was biding her time until she decided to tell Nicholaus that she baby she carried was his. It was Claudia who took everything he ever wanted to have with her – family, children – and put very much in Nicholaus's grasp.

But most of all, he was angry at himself. He was angry that he did not see the snake that Claudia really was.

He was angry that he had not known that Claudia never really loved him.

* * *

Claudia stood in front of her armoire a week later after the awkward breakfast, gazing at her wardrobe with a look mixed between disgust and indecision. None of her dresses seemed to fit to go down to dinner wearing and quite frankly, they were all as revealing as the green dress had been. She wouldn't have had such a hard decision had it just be Nicholaus at dinner, but Kurt would be there too and she wasn't quite sure if she was ready enough to be wearing such dresses in his company yet.

She felt strong, suit clad arms wrap around her waist and she grinned when she felt Nicholaus's lips meet her neck. He observed her wardrobe as well and eventually, he decided for her, a decision that she beat herself at not thinking of first.

"Wear the pink," He suggested, and that was what it was, a suggestion, never a command. Nicholaus was funny like that. "It's not too revealing in your grandfather's eyes and not too many people will get jealous at me being seen with you while you're in it. Not-to-mention, the color looks magnificent on you." Claudia grinned.

"You think every color looks magnificent on me, Nicholaus." She teased and she could see Nicholaus grinning as he moved away to adjust a medal on his uniform in front of the nearby mirror. Claudia grabbed the pink silk dress from its hanger nonetheless and Nicholaus answered her as she took off her clothes and threw them on a nearby couch.

"That's because it's true. Every color does look good on you . . . except for perhaps, burlap." Claudia scoffed and laughed as the dress fell over her head and shoulders like water, moving to settle around her in a weightlessness that all expensive silk seemed to possess. She heard Nicholaus whistle from behind her and she grinned over her shoulder at him.

"Down boy and lace me up." Nicholaus bowed teasingly before he stepped forward and pulled at the laces in the back, knowing well how tightly she liked them. It had a corseted bodice of a deep rose color with hints of black, the skirts a pale pink that flared around at her feet. A matching shawl went with it to cover her shoulders and she heard Nicholaus's teasing whistle behind her again as he laced her up.

"Please don't hit me Claudia, but have you gotten bigger?"

"More than you know . . ." She thought, rolling her eyes in the process. Even though she was about three to four weeks along, she could already tell that she was pregnant. She could tell by her stomach's slight, barely even noticeable protrusion and the way she could smell things on the opposite side of the house. It was amazing, a feeling that she never thought she would experience.

Nicholaus stopped lacing her up at her words and she felt a stillness descend around them. "Claudia . . . what do you mean by that?" He asked her quietly, and Claudia shrugged, not able to meet his gaze. This was it . . . this was where all her planning and biding time would come to fruition.

"I thought you had noticed, so I didn't say anything." She told him and Nicholaus sucked in a breath sharply through his mouth.

"Claudia . . . are you pregnant?" He asked in a voice barely above a breathy whisper and she averted her eyes to the floor in what she hoped was a sign of embarrassment.

"I should have told you sooner, I know, but the thing is -"

She was interrupted by Nicholaus quickly doing up her laces and then turning her around, where he pulled her into his arms in an embrace that made her want to cry. Guilt flooded through her more than ever right now but she was bound and determined to see her unholy plan go through.

"I glad you told me now instead of waiting until something bad possibly happens. I'm happy, Claudia, I really am, but . . . this is all so sudden! I never expected to become a father this soon in my life." Claudia nodded.

"I know, Nicholaus, I know. I didn't plan on this happening; _we _didn't plan on this happening!" At least _that _was the truth.

"But it did . . ." They murmured at the same time before they parted a little, where they kissed gently, both of them revealing in the sweetness of it. They broke apart and Nicholaus grinned and laughed a little.

"I suppose your family has another reason for rejoicing, huh?" He chuckled and Claudia returned it, shaking her head.

"You have no idea, Nicholaus . . ." She replied in a voice she hoped was as happy and joyful at his but she could not banish the thoughts of what Kurt would do when he learned she had actually gone through with her plan.

* * *

That night's dinner was a complete and utter fiasco.

It hadn't started out that way, though. In the beginning, everyone (except Kurt) was joyful when they announced that Claudia was pregnant, her mother even dissolving into happy tears at the thought of her oldest and most stubborn, strong-willed daughter becoming a mother in nine months. Ralf had been proud, happy at the thought and her grandfather had been joyous as well. Bruno was excited about becoming an uncle at such a young age and Gretel was simply indifferent. Kurt brooded, however, and his anger steadily grew over the course of dinner.

At the second course, was when Claudia saw things start to go downhill.

Ralf and her grandfather had gotten into some kind of conversation that grew more heated as it went by. Elsa didn't notice because she was still fawning over the fact that she was going to be a grandmother to Nicholaus, who chuckled and agreed with almost every word she said. The only one who was paying attention to where the conversation was going, was Claudia.

Then, in an effort to cool his head, Ralf turned to Kurt and inquired about his family. Claudia, who knew about the death of Kurt's mother and the banishment of his father, felt her heart go out to the man who was struggling to find the words he needed to explain to her father why his father was in exile in some other European country. Worse still, Nicholaus had now taken an interest and with Nicholaus taking an interest, Elsa had no choice but to.

Kurt had started by telling them of his mother's death, a fact that earned him a good amount of 'sorry's', something which he politely received. When it got to him about to talk about his father being in exile, Claudia saw the darkening of Ralf's expression and her heart truly went out to him. Right now was a time when he needed someone to lean on and right now Claudia could not do that without opening a whole different can of worms between her and Nicholaus.

After the conversation in which Ralf tersely told Kurt to meet him in his office later, it had snowballed from there. An old cook that Claudia knew Bruno had grown very close to had spilled soup on Kurt's lap. After jumping up and letting out a long string of expletives, he dragged the poor old man out of sight into the next room and proceeded to brutally beat him.

Responses were mixed. Her father and grandfather determinedly ignored the sound of pleads and painful yelps coming from the next room, whilst Gretel and her mother held looks of horror. But it was Bruno's who garnered the most attention from Claudia. His eyes were as wide and frightened as saucers and he flinched every time the old man let out a plead or a painful yelp. Claudia felt tears come to her eyes as she gazed at Bruno and she felt Nicholaus steel himself beside her.

"Commander, with your permission -" Ralf's terse nod interrupted him and Nicholaus squeezed her hand reassuringly before he stood and went into the next room. There was the sound of perfunctory orders which were combated with yells which escalated into roars. Claudia stood and moved over to Bruno, where she took the shaking, sobbing boy into her arms. He clung to her like his life depended on it and Ralf nodded to her, giving her permission to take him up to his room.

As they were leaving, the sound of punches could be heard from the other room, causing Bruno to flinch even more and sob quietly.

* * *

By the time Bruno had fallen asleep, allowing Claudia to sneak from the room, it was nighttime and the house was all quiet. The lights had been extinguished except for a few lone candles here and there and even with her heels removed, her bare feet still echoed throughout the halls. It was a very creepy feeling overall but Claudia was not afraid. Claudia didn't have that many reasons to be afraid anymore.

She snuck down the stairs to the first floor, her parched throat driving her to do so and when she reached the dining room, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and felt a presence behind her. She knew who it was.

"What is it Kurt?" Her tone was clipped and cold when she addressed. She resented the way he hulked behind her, hatred rolling off him in waves, it seemed.

"I heard noises going down the stairs and in here and was concerned with everyone's safety." His gaze flicked from her tear-stained face to the tenseness of her body as she gazed at him, finally noticing the black eye he had been dealt, and wondering how many other bruises that Nicholas had dealt him when he tried to stop him.

"I assure you that I am fine. But now is not a time I wish to wrangle with your nosiness." She closed her eyes briefly and struggled to compose herself. "Please, just go Kurt."

He stood silently, still staring at her until she was forced to address him again, her tone even more clipped. "So, looks like my fiancé dealt you a rather horrible blow?" Kurt chuckled and looked away for a moment.

"Yes he did . . . he dealt me a good many blows."

"You should have not done that. I have no pity." Unconsciously, her hands balled in fists.

"Of course you do not." He leaned against the wall crossing his ankles casually. "From what I remember, you used to tell me that you despised Nicholas . . . that you hated him and never wanted to marry him. Something you must have lied to me about. And here you are, obviously angry, which is more emotion than I have seen from you yet?" He lifted an eyebrow at her.

Rage tingled through every muscle in her body. "And what is it to you, Kurt? Since when is my personal life any of your concern; you are just a soldier?" Her voice shook with barely concealed fury.

Abruptly, he pushed himself off the wall and in several long strides was standing before her looking down on her with narrowed eyes.

"Since you are my Commander's daughter, _anything_ affecting your state of mind and ability to lead concerns me." His tone was harsh, but with a surprisingly gentle touch, he reached out to her cheek and brushed a finger across a tear. Thoughtfully, he stared down at the wetness and rubbed it between two fingers.

Something inside her broke and without even thinking, she lashed out with one hand and slapped him soundly across the face. He fell back a step in surprise and then swiftly grabbed both her wrists in a viselike grip. His eyes narrowed into slits and he lowered his face to hers. His voice was strangely quiet compared to the anger in his eyes.

"I am not _him_, I do not lie to suit my own needs, so don't take your stupidity out on me. And yes, I said _stupidity . . ._" She blanched from the heated fury in his words as his voice trailed off with a harsh exhalation. He shook his head and closed his eyes as if in pain.

Shock streaked through her mind and broke through the red haze of her anger. What was he talking about? He would never _what_? Curiosity warred with fury and won. She broke her hand from his grip and touched his cheek tentatively. He opened his eyes and Maker, the intensity of that look-pain, anger, and if it could be believed, _need_. Her breath quickened and something stirred deep inside. She quickly clamped down on the feeling before it could form and shoved it back into the cage deep inside her heart.

"Nicholaus was coming for a long time Kurt . . ."

God, who was she trying to convince; Kurt or herself?

He hissed with derision. "Well it's his gain as far as I'm concerned. As I said, he is a fool, and you deserve better, although somehow, he seemed to have gotten the girl." Then with no warning, he buried a fist in her hair, pulling her head back and pressing his lips to hers. The kiss was brutal, _hungry_, and when she tried to push away, he tightened his grip in her hair and around her back. His tongue invaded her mouth and claimed it. She tasted fruit and the flavor of him, of _Kurt_, swirled against her taste buds. She closed her eyes against a wave of dizziness and felt his teeth graze her lower lip.

Her heart hammered furiously in her chest and she no longer knew if her body's reactions were from anger or desire, and she didn't _care_. At this moment, those emotions were one and the same. She gripped the front of his shirt in both fists and pulled him against her hard. He growled low in his throat and the hand on her back dropped down, pulling her groin against his. She felt his bulge of desire pressed against her stomach and groaned into his kiss.

Breathing hard, he suddenly pulled back while keeping his one arm around her waist. In one swift move, one arm impatiently swept across the dining table, shoving all else to the floor. There was too much in the _way_. His blue eyes burned into hers as with trembling fingers, he unlaced her nightgown and struggled to get it over head, not nearly fast enough for either of them. His eyes raked over her breasts, then slowly down her taut stomach, drinking in the sight of her like a man who has been deprived of water to the point of death. He cupped one breast within his rough palm - oh but his touch was _hot_ - burning the tender skin. Gripping her full, rounded buttocks in both hands, he lifted her onto the desk.

Both were breathing raggedly now and she tried to shove his shirt above his head, needing to feel his skin also. He roughly tugged it off, and she got a glimpse of the lean musculature, no army tattoos like the couple that spread across Nicholaus muscular chest. She was desperate to feel him, to map every inch, every line of muscle again. She placed both palms against his chest, his skin so hot, it burned against her own. She could feel the movement of his breathing, could feel his struggle to keep it even and calm. But she wanted to _break_ that calm, to force that pent-up animal inside to come out. By God, he had started this and now she _needed_ it.

Suddenly he was gripping her shoulders hard enough to bruise, shoving her down onto the desk. His teeth were bared and the look in his eyes was that of a feral wolf about to attack his prey. For the first time she felt fear, for this was every inch a man starved with need and driven by something she had yet to identify. But even the fear was tempered and matched with a ferocity of her own, the rage that had encompassed at him for the entirety of the week fighting its way back to the surface.

His lips found one pointed nipple and he sucked hard, biting down as he did so. She cried out in a glorious mix of pain and pleasure and arched her back shamelessly. Her nipple swelled beneath his tongue, sending shocks of electricity from her breast down to the heat between her thighs. Again and again, he bit down until she was keening, writhing across the smooth surface under her back. He was not gentle, but tenderness was not something she wanted just now. She tilted her head back baring her neck and he pressed his lips against the hollow at the base of her throat, then proceeded to suck and bite a scorching path across each breast and down her stomach. She twisted beneath him mindlessly, all desperate moans and cries, both trying to escape _and_ press further against his tongue and teeth. A stray thought crossed her mind that she would be bruised later from this, bruises that she would have to creatively explain to Nicholaus, but then the thought disappeared and she stopped thinking coherently at all.

Once again, he lowered his head and kissed her hard, biting down on her lip, and she tasted a tang of metal, her own blood. His fingers separated the folds between her legs and were shockingly gentle as they explored her slick petals. She thrust her hips upwards - oh God, but she was _begging_ - and he thrust two fingers deep inside. His fingers curled and she sobbed out a hoarse cry from a throat that felt parched. Her nails raked down his chest, leaving deep red streaks tinged with blood, a tattoo of her own.

He groaned as her hands reached his pants and they were shaking too hard to sort out the button and zipper. _Dammit, why did they have to use laces of all things_? Impatiently, she pulled herself to a sitting position on the table and shoved his pants down to his knees. She slowly grasped him and he gave a gasp and murmured something unintelligible under his breath.

Her eyes bored into his as she guided him to her entrance and his breath hitched, pupils widening into dark pools of heat and desire. He grasped both her legs at the knees and pushed them back against her chest as she braced her hands behind her on the table for support. Shivering with anticipation, she could feel the air cooling the moisture within her folds as he spread her, _exposed _her. For a brief moment, he hesitated, his eyes searching hers for something - oh God, was he seeking _permission_? She saw a flicker of concern behind the heated desire and wondered at it, but she was too far gone to be able to reason it out clearly.

"_Please _Kurt. . ." She gasped, desperately thrusting her hips upward, seeking, and begging to be filled.

He needed no further invitation. In one convulsive movement, he was deep inside of her, and she cried out at the sheer pleasure of his hardness stretching her. The brief gentleness in him was gone, replaced by an intense hunger. Pushing her legs back even further, he began to pound ruthlessly into the very core of her being. With each thrust, he brutalized that spot deep inside, sending waves of shocking ecstasy throughout her sweat-slicked body. Every sense seemed starkly aware: the taste of blood in her mouth from her swollen lip; the smell of him - leather, sweat, and earth; the sound of his moans and grunts as he pistoned relentlessly into her; the scorching heat between their bodies. Her head fell back, mouth agape, a brief thought surfacing - this is what it's like to be _taken_. Her body shook beneath his powerful thrusts and their incoherent cries came together in a chaotic chorus. The pulsing knot in the center of her being was tightening; building . . .

Oh God she couldn't . . . _couldn't_ take this pressure.

It was too much; her body could no longer hold her together in one piece. With a scream, she _split_, body convulsing helplessly beneath him. But he did not relent, did not allow her to spiral back down. Holding himself deep inside her, he grinded massaged that spot with his hardness, keeping her at the peak till she couldn't breathe. Then she felt him stiffen, thrusting even deeper, and he was _pulsing_, spurting liquid heat deep within her. His cry joined hers and she felt his hips shake with the power of his pleasure. And for a time, there was nothing, nothing but shades of sensation rippling between them like an aurora shimmering in the night.

The feel of cool air over her sweat-slicked skin brought her mind back to clarity. She opened her eyes to find Kurt watching her, eyes still glazed with the aftershocks of his orgasm. His chest was criss-crossed with the marks of her nails, his lips parted and swollen. She wondered crazily what she looked like, hair disheveled, skin shining with moisture, bruises that she could already feel forming. She struggled to sit up but discovered she was too spent to move, her limbs trembling weakly with the effort. Quickly, he reached out and pulled her up against him. She dropped her head to his chest and closed her eyes, bombarded with too many feelings to even comprehend what had just happened. He rested his chin in her hair, one hand stroking the back of her neck. They rested quietly like this for a minute until a slip of memory resurfaced in her mind.

She pushed him away, waves of disgust and self-loathing reverberating throughout her body as she shakily slipped on her nightgown. Why did she allow that to happen? What the Hell was she _thinking_?

She got to her feet, her legs immediately wanting to buck from underneath her, but she managed to stop it and keep her balance. She felt Kurt place a gentle hand on her shoulder but she recoiled from him as if he had burned her. She saw him withdraw his hand from her as if hurt and she felt a vague satisfaction at knowing he was hurt. He _should_ be hurt . . . he should never have compromised her like that; what if her mother or her father - or Heavens forbid Bruno or Nicholaus - come down the stairs and see them.

"Claudia -"

"_Don't_!" She hissed at him in spitting venom and she felt bitter tears come to her eyes as she spoke the word with no hesitation. Her arms moved to wrap around her stomach, at the baby growing within – at _Kurt's _baby growing within, the baby she wanted so desperately to be Nicholaus's right now – but the motion did not make her feel any better. In fact, it made her feel worse.

Without another word, she left him then, her destination not the bedroom she shared with Nicholaus, but the bathroom, where she would scrub every inch of Kurt from every pore of her body.


	11. Chapter 10

**Basically my take on what Elsa, Gretel and Claudia thought when they saw the dead body of Bruno. **

* * *

The next morning was stormy and angry, the steel gray clouds swollen with a heavy rain that threatened a downpour at any moment.

That morning's breakfast was terse at best from the dinner fiasco the previous night and everyone picked at their food, unable to eat anything of substance. Gretel was saddened that Kurt had indeed left them for the front lines, a duty that would most likely than not get him killed. Tears would randomly fall down her cheeks when she would remember he was gone and would have to steel herself to keep from crying, lest their father give her a cruel word. Bruno was subdued, their mother tired and who looked years older than she actually was. Gray was starting to appear in her hair and bags were appearing underneath her eyes. Their grandfather had left that morning with Kurt, both bound for the train station, both never to be seen from again.

Claudia had noticed the black eye that Nicholaus had garnered from trying to stop Kurt from beating up the poor man the previous night; a farewell gift from the real father of her child.

Ralf was the one, who broke the uncomfortable silence,

"We are returning to Germany . . ."

Bruno's eyes shot onto their father, but Elsa, Claudia and Nicholaus remained subdued and Gretel had a look of almost relief. Elsa was tired of this house, the house that shaken her marriage into shambles and quite frankly, Claudia and Nicholaus was almost indifferent. They knew why Gretel was in relief. The only reason she liked this place was because Kurt was here, and now that Kurt was gone, she had nothing left here and a lot back in Berlin. Bruno, however, actually looked disappointed.

"Why are we going back?" He demanded. "I don't wanna go back!"

Nicholaus turned to gaze at him in interest. "Why is that, Bruno? You have your friends back in Berlin!" Bruno shook his head stubbornly.

"I like it here! I've finally got used to it here; I don't want to go back!"

"I'm sorry Bruno, but we have to. This is your mother's decision . . ." He gazed pointedly at Elsa as he said this and Elsa shot him a mean look back. Ralf sighed and went back to his breakfast. "I have to stay her . . . I am not yet released from my duties . . ." Elsa sighed.

"So we'll leave tomorrow. I have the maids packing our things now." She told them and Claudia shook her head.

"I and Nicholaus will stay."

There was a heavy silence as every pair of eyes turned onto Claudia, including Nicholaus's inquiring gaze. "Claudia, no . . ." Elsa murmured, shaking her head, her eyes wide with horror. Claudia shrugged.

"Father needs company and a woman to keep the house when you and the children are gone. Not-to-mention, we will need a house when the baby is born . . ."

Elsa still gazed at her in horror, but Ralf slowly shook his head. "She's right, you know. Let Claudia stay, Elsa. She'll be safe here with me and Nicholaus. Then when the war's over, this house will be a wedding present." Elsa reluctantly nodded in agreement, Claudia unable to meet her mother's hurt, horrified eyes. She refused to return to Berlin because if, by some freak of nature, Kurt survives the front lines and makes it home, he would not find her in Berlin.

She'd be damned if he found her anywhere.

* * *

The rain had begun to downpour an hour or two before dusk. It was a harsh downpour that pounded unmercifully against the windows of the house and created ankle deep puddles in the front courtyard. It was a foreboding rain, a rain that made a heavy feeling appear in the pit of Claudia's stomach.

She sat at her vanity that late afternoon, organizing the jumble of random things in her drawers that she didn't even remember having, and Nicholaus lay asleep on their bed, still fully clothed, when there was a frantic pounding on their bedroom door.

Nicholaus awoke almost immediately, although it was Claudia that opened the door. Elsa stood on the threshold, a frightened look on her face. "Claudia, Nicholaus, come quickly! Bruno isn't back yet! He _isn't here_!"

Claudia gazed at her mother in confusion. "What do you mean he isn't here; he was here this morning!" Elsa nodded.

"I know, but he left to go _explore _after breakfast and he hasn't returned! We have no idea where he is!"

Nicholaus had joined Claudia by the door now. "Do you have any idea where he is?" He asked calmly, soothing and Elsa shook her head.

"No, but the garden shed window was open. Ralf has soldiers and dogs searching the forests now and they are going down to the . . . to the . . ." Elsa face blanched and a look of impossible horror appeared in her eyes.

"Oh my God, Claudia . . . what if he's _there_?" Nicholaus's eyes widened.

"You mean _Auschwitz? _Are you for certain?" Elsa shook her head.

"No, I'm not, but that would explain where he's been going for the past months! Why he would be going there, I'm not certain, but it would explain -"

Nicholaus shook his head and moved to fetch his coat, interrupting Elsa mid-sentence. "Auschwitz is a death camp, Elsa. If he is indeed there, we need to reach him quickly. I'll go find Ralf and make all Hell to the camp. Claudia, stay with your mother and Gretel. Search the forest if you can, but do not go too far; I do not want to have to find you too!" Claudia nodded and Nicholaus kissed her gently for a moment before he darted from the room and down the stairs, his boot heels clomping heavily on the wood floor. Elsa turned her frightened eyes onto Claudia.

"Oh Claudia, he's there, I know it!" Claudia shushed her mother as she grasped her hand and pulled her down the stairs, meeting Gretel by the back door.

"We don't know that, mother! Now, you heard Nicholaus, let's go search the forest. Maybe he is somewhere in the forest seeking shelter from the rain." Elsa nodded, her expression calming, although her eyes were still wide and fearful.

"Your right . . . maybe he's seeking shelter from the rain . . . yes, that's it! He's seeking shelter from the rain!"

Claudia and Gretel shared an uneasy look as the three women stepped out into the pouring rain, their destination the forest.

* * *

They found his clothes in front of one of the electric fences of Auschwitz. Claudia would never forget the keening cry of their mother's sobbing as she hugged her child's clothing to her chest. It was the keening cry of a mother who knew she had lost her child, a part of her . . . a being that she had housed for nine months within her . . . a part that Claudia herself was now caring for.

They sat there for a while in the cold, pouring rain, trying to calm their mother long enough to get her to their feet to head back, and it was there, that Nicholaus and Ralf found them, the rain plastering their hair to their heads, their uniforms to their skin. In Ralf's arms lay the sheeted, limp and naked body of his only son, fresh from the gas chambers.

When Elsa caught sight of the body, her cry was even more keening, the cry of a mother who definitely knew that her child was dead.

Gretel was sobbing too, harder than she had ever sobbed for Kurt, although Claudia did not. She was growing numb instead, her brain slowly shutting itself down, denial setting in. No . . . no, that was not Bruno. Her father was just playing a cruel joke on their mother for her impertinence. This was another unfortunate child from the gas chamber; this _was not _Bruno!

Claudia felt a screaming sob bubble up in her throat as Elsa shakily reached forward and moved the sheet off of the child face revealing the peaceful face of her only son. Claudia screaming sob matched her mother's who collapsed at Ralf's feet, Gretel's arms immediately moving to wrap around her mother's shoulders, holding her close.

Claudia felt Nicholaus's arms wrap around her, pulling her close, pushing her face into his shoulder to shield her eyes from the sight of her dead brother. He rocked her back and forth, shushing her with gentle words and gentle touches, but she would not calm down, she _could not _calm down.

She would never calm down.

She felt Nicholaus's hands grip her face and force her eyes to meet his. "Claudia, look at me! Come back to me! Claudia, come back!"

Slowly, despite the fact that Claudia wanted not to, she slowly returned to the earth, to Nicholaus's soothing words and when she returned, she fell into his arms, sobbing, same as their mother kneeling in the mud and cold at their father's feet, sobbing her eyes out.

Claudia had never hated her own people so much in her life.


	12. Epilogue

**Okay, I just want to thank everyone who has been here for me throughout the making of this story and even the rather long . . . "gaps" throughout the chapters :). I especially want to thank NICOLEKOTLER and Gwuinivyre for their awesome, inspiring reveiws, as well as the others and the one not-so-inspiring review lol. I really hope you continue to be fans of my work and I wish you luck in your own stories :)**

**Now, even though I did not put Claudia and Kurt together, I hope you do like the epilogue, which I kinda leave on a Stephan-King-esque cliffhanger. Sorry about that, but I'm very happy with it, especially speaking on what everyone has gone through.**

**One last thing, I will be doing my customary editing the entire story and reloading the chapters, which basically makes them better and even adds some more scenes. Hope you go back through and read them :)**

**Its been swell and catch ya later,**

**- Nagiana**

* * *

The house looked the same as he remembered it. It was the same stucco color, the same colored-glass paned windows and heavy mahogany doors. The courtyard was the same as well. The same tire swing was tied and swinging gently to the same tree off in the corner of the yard. The bushes were still neatly trimmed, the flowers bright and strong, the grass still as green as an emerald. A sandbox had been added, however, and a swing-set. The back garden door was open now too, the door which had never been opened before.

Four children played in the courtyard, two boys and two girls, playing what looked like tag. The youngest, a boy who was just a toddler, toddled behind his sisters and older brother, his bright blue eyes shining in joy.

He stopped for a moment and stood there as the gates swung shut behind him, watching impassively, almost in amusement, as the children played before him. One of the girls was as black-haired as their father; the youngest boy and the other girl were brown headed like their mother. The oldest boy, a boy he saw so much of Bruno in despite everything, was brown-headed as well, something he was sure the boy's mother was thankful for.

The children slowly and finally noticed that he was standing there watching them, and the one who addressed him was the oldest boy, the one with brown hair. His brown eyes were alight with suspicion when he addressed him,

"What do you want?"

He smiled in amusement at the boy's bravery. Of course, with Claudia Reinhardt as his mother, he wasn't surprised.

He stepped forward, the boy standing his ground as he approached and bent down on one knee before him. "What is your name, little man?" The boy's head rose.

"Bruno. I was named after my uncle, who died before I was born."

He couldn't help a surprised look appear on his face. Bruno was dead? How could that be? He had been so healthy and strong when he left . . .

"These are my sisters, Madeleine and Tobsha and my little brother, Braun." He could not help but smile in amusement at the young boy's fierce determination to be strong like his 'father' and to protect his siblings. He nodded to the front doors of the house.

"Is your mother home? I'm an old friend, you see and I've traveled a long ways -"

"Bruno, where are your sisters and Braun: your father wants . . ."

The front door opened and she stepped outside before he could finish what he was saying. She froze and her voice trailed quietly off when she saw him kneeling there before her son, _his _son.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded, a tad coldly, and he got to his feet and inclined his head to her.

"I came to see you Claudia." He told her and Claudia crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"What do you possibly have to say to me, Kurt?" She demanded, and Kurt Kotler shrugged as he gazed up at her. Claudia hardly looked different, if not a little older. Her hair was longer, a richer, darker shade of chocolate than it had been earlier in her life. Her body was more voluptuous, something brought about by the four pregnancies in her life. Her eyes were colder, though, her face thinner, giving her an almost cruel beauty.

"I just . . . thought we could talk. I thought that we could catch up." Claudia sighed and gazed down at the ground underneath her heeled feet and the door opened behind her. Nicholaus slipped out, a briefcase in his hand. He told her goodbye before he pecked her on the lips, and a softness appeared on her face as he did so, a softness that Kurt had never seen before on her face. They gazed at each other lovingly for a moment and Nicholaus murmured something that made her giggle for a moment before she pecked him one more time on the lips and pushed him playfully away. He moved down the steps and kissed each of his children on the head when they grouped around him, including Bruno . . . including Kurt's son.

He gaze a perfunctory nod to Kurt, who returned it as Nicholaus moved to the car and its chauffeur, a black-suited old man this time instead of the soldier in a Nazi uniform. Claudia gestured to the house as Nicholaus's car pulled away, and Kurt nodded and stood. The children gazed at him in suspicion as they watched him move into the house he had been stationed in for all those long months before he was switched to the frontlines, but went back to playing when the door was closed behind him.

The inside of the house could have been no different. Painted in warmer colors and decorated beautifully with works of art, ancient looking pottery and marble sculptures, Kurt's breath was temporarily taken away by how much it had changed.

She led him into the kitchen, which had changed little, and he took a seat at the counter as she busied herself by making tea. She chatted cheerfully with the cook as she did so, a plump, middle-aged woman with graying auburn hair and kind green eyes that crinkled at the corners when she grinned. Claudia called her Helga, and when Claudia set the teakettle on the stove to boil, Helga moved from the room into the pantry, no doubt to take inventory. Kurt would never have thought that being a housewife would have suited Claudia, but it did. She moved around the kitchen and the house like she owned it, although he did know that she did own her own psychiatric clinic in the nearest town, where she treated concentration-camp survivors, helping them move on from what had been dealt them in the past.

"I'm . . . sorry about Bruno." He began and Claudia sighed sadly.

"It was hard at first . . . living without him. But when Bruno was born, I saw so much of his uncle in him that I had to name him after him. I think Bruno would have liked that." She chuckled and Kurt cocked half a grin and chuckled a little.

"He probably would, you're right. What does Nicholaus do?"

"After we found Bruno, Nicholaus quit the army the next day. He couldn't stand to work for the same government who would kill innocent children. We lay low for a few years; especially when the camps were liberated and when all the important people of the army were hunted down like dogs and tried. Right when the new government was established, he applied for a job at the capital. He's a high ranking official within the government who spends more time away from home than at it, and I happen to own my own clinic in town, as you no doubt know. It's hard sometimes, but we manage." Kurt noticed the slight bulge of her stomach and sighed. Yes, it seemed they definitely did manage.

"What about your mother and father? What about Gretel?" Claudia sighed again in sadness as the teakettle started whistling. She took it off the stove and poured them two cups of tea, the steaming water immediately turning brown as the tealeaves inside the packets.

"Father and mother divorced after the death of Bruno. She blamed his death on father and when she left, she took Gretel with her and half his money. She lives comfortably now in London and Gretel is happily married with a child on the way. She hardly remembers anything of the war; I don't think she wants to. Father lived with us for a time after the divorce and became a heavy drinker and never once stopped supporting the government that took away his only son. He drank himself into an early grave, although he did live to see the birth of Bruno." Claudia took a tentative sip of the tea and when she was satisfied that it wasn't too hot, took a larger sip. He watched her for a moment before he finally spoke.

"What do you hope it is?" He asked, nodding to her slight pregnancy and Claudia couldn't help but smile.

"Nicholaus, of course, hopes it will be a girl, but won't object if it's another boy. We have three already and Nicholaus wants another girl to even the score, but . . ."

"Does he know?" Claudia turned her eyes onto Kurt.

"Does he know about what?"

"You know . . . me and Bruno." Claudia paused for a moment before she shook her head. She set her teacup down, observing the amber liquid contained within for a moment.

"You know the answer, Kurt. Of course he doesn't."

"Will you ever tell him?" Claudia shrugged.

"Taking everything we've ever gone through in life . . . maybe. I doubt this one little dirty secret will result in our marriage being in shambles, but still . . . it would take some work and it's not like his love for the boy would ever change," Claudia eyed him pointedly. "He's adores Bruno, Kurt. I have never seen a man love a child as Nicholaus loves Bruno."

"He's not his, though!"

"And who would say he is not, Kurt!" She demanded testily, her eyes snapping with fiery electricity. "A father is who picks you up and brushes you off when you fall. He dries your tears and humors you by looking under the bed and in the closest when you are adamant that are monsters in your room. A father runs behind you as you take your first steps . . . when you ride your first bike . . ." She trailed off for a moment, allowing it to soak in. "Nicholaus has done all those things and more, with all of our children, and what gives you the right to come now and demand the truth?"

"He's my son!"

"That still doesn't give you the right, Kurt!" She snapped, slamming her open palm down on the face of the wooden table. "You'd only be hurting Bruno and you know it! You're just too selfish to admit it."

"You dare to say that to me when you're the one who started all this?" He hissed back and Claudia rolled her eyes.

"Because I knew we would never be together Kurt! It was stupid of me to not rebuff your advances anyway, something I regret every day!"

"So you regret Bruno?"

Claudia glared at him for a moment and when she spoke; her voice was icy and cold. "You dare question the love I have for my son? I didn't say I regret Bruno, I regret that you're his father!"

Kurt recoiled, a little hurt, and Claudia pursed her lips and looked down. "I'm sorry, that was cruel." She admitted quietly and Kurt chuckled sarcastically and shook his head.

"No Claudia, it was the truth. Tell me, did you ever once love me?" Claudia shrugged as she traced a whorl in the wood with her finger.

"Once, a long time ago, I think I did. But I grew up, Kurt . . . I realized things and I realized how foolish our relationship was . . . how it could never be. I realized that I _did _love Nicholaus, and that I still do."

Kurt shook his head. "I came back, thinking that I could salvage at least _something _from our relationship, but apparently, I was wrong."

"I love Nicholaus with the entirety of my heart, Kurt, and I would never hurt him. I wouldn't have given five children including this one on the way if I didn't." Kurt nodded.

"Right. I think . . . I think I need to go." Claudia smiled gently, sympathetically.

"I wish it could have ended differently between us, Kurt . . . I really do." She told him and Kurt shook his head.

"I'm tired of you lying to me Claudia. You don't wish things were different; you never wished things were different. You wanted things to be exactly as they are now. Well . . . I suppose this is goodbye. I hope you have a good life and . . . take care of my son." Claudia nodded, the ghost of tears appearing in her eyes, although, quite frankly, Kurt wouldn't be surprised if those, too, were a show.

He was glad she was with Nicholaus; actually . . . both of them were excellent actors.

He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a picture, where he placed it face down on the counter. He gave her one last, lingering look before he shoved his hands down into his pockets and made his way to the door. As he stepped out into the bright sunlight, he heard Claudia's agony-filled sobs as she saw the picture of Nicholaus kissing the beautiful brunette vaudevillian actress known only as Denise, in one dim-lighted café on the streets of Berlin.

The doors swung gently shut behind him, muffling Claudia sobs and the soothing words of Helga as he moved down the steps to the children, where he gestured Bruno over to him. The boy trotted over to him willingly, and Kurt smiled as he withdrew a necklace from around his neck and placed it over the boy's.

"This was something I got from my mother when I was your age and before she died. It's a good luck charm," The boy nodded and thanked him as he observed the twining snake in his hand, a long-time symbol of family, in awe. "And . . . take care of your mother . . . I think she's going to need it."


End file.
